Now Corey Chwiecko and Sam Eagleson and Chris Carabello and their Gov. Mifflin teammates know what guys throughout the Inter-County League felt each week when it came time to face the Mustangs.

That feeling of helplessness that sinks in shortly after kickoff when nothing is working and the guys on the other side of the line of scrimmage are bigger and faster and just flat-out better.

"We did this to so many teams this season," Chwiecko said solemnly after seeing the Mustangs’ hopes wrecked by the relentless Harrisburg Cougars 49-14 Saturday night in the District 3/6-AAAA championship game. "I kept thinking, ‘I guess this must be how it feels.’ "

The Mustangs ravaged their opponents in Section 1 of the I-C this season. Mercy-ruled most of them. Humbled just about all of them, as well as pair of Harrisburg’s Mid-Penn Commonwealth rivals during the playoffs.

They saw Wilson nearly take the Cougars out last week and figured they were fast enough and strong enough and good enough to do it themselves.

But sometime between last week’s overtime escape act and prime time at Hersheypark Stadium, Cougars coach George Chaump must have performed a magic trick because that certainly wasn’t the same Harrisburg team out on the field.

This one was focused, mistake free and devastating in every aspect of the game. They stuffed the Mustangs’ vaunted Veer, over-ran their lines and jammed bullish tailback Cameron Artis-Payne down their throats.

This was the team State College coach Al Wolski was talking about when the playoffs began a month ago, the one he called the greatest array of individual talent he had ever seen.

Against the Mustangs all of those individuals came together perfectly as a team. They scored three touchdowns in the first period alone, the same number the Mustangs had given up through their first 13 games, and had 40 points by halftime — the most by any team in a District 3 championship game.

"They were just too much for us tonight," Mifflin coach Mick Vecchio said. "They wound up just manhandling us at every aspect of the game and we just couldn’t compete with them. I thought we could, but we couldn’t. I could be wrong, but I think they by far played their best game."

These Cougars were pretty close to perfect Saturday, though they’re far from a perfect team. They needed a bunch of breaks, some of them heaven sent, to survive the semifinals.

If any team in this district tournament was going to stop Harrisburg it was the Bulldogs, with that fierce defense and power running game.

And Chaump, as close as you’ll find to a football genius, knew it.

"Hell yeah," he said with a hearty laugh. "(After that game I thought), someone’s on my side."

"Watching them on film against Wilson, I really felt that we could beat them," said Chwiecko, the Mustangs’ senior tackle, "but now I really think that they just didn’t come out to play that game and really came out their hardest for this game."

Before you could blink the Mustangs were all but out of it, down 19-7 less than 10 minutes into the game, down 26-7 midway through the second quarter. There were uncharacteristic missed tackles. A long kickoff return. A punt that never got off. An interception returned for a touchdown. Suddenly, incredibly, the Mustangs were being mercy-ruled.

"You just get that helpless feeling," Chwiecko said, "that nothing really can go right for us, and it just kept falling apart. It’s like quicksand. One thing goes wrong, and then another and another and before you know it you’re in a hole and you can’t get out."